This invention regards a new guarantee seal for food products and a machine for applying this seal to the packaged product.
In the field of packaging and distribution of food products, a seal represents an inviolable means of closing a container, bag or similar with a guarantee of integrity for the product contained inside and/or a way of identifying the product which is being distributed.
At present, to close and seal bags used as wrappings for food products, metal or plastic clips are applied automatically by machine or adhesive tape is applied, either by hand or mechanically.
For string-bound products, such as salami, with its string or net container, the seal may be: a leaden seal; a pre-stamped aluminium clip; a plastic or paper label applied by hand; a round aluminium clip applied by machine.
However, these well-known systems for closing and sealing food products are not all applicable by automatic means, nor are they easily visible, and they have little surface area or anywhere to carry information about the origin, ingredients, date of packaging or expiry date etc. of the product. There is also a difference between those used for wrapping bags and those used for sausage meats.
Meanwhile, the aim of this invention is to supply a guarantee seal that can be used for closing food products with bag wrapping as well as identifying string-bound products, that can be easily applied by an automatic machine, that can carry and display various types of printed information, and, therefore, overcome the limitations in application and use of the closing devices and seals used to date.
This aim is achieved by the invention of a guarantee seal in the form of a plaque or label with a stem that can be folded and fastened around a bag or wrapper to seal it, and an explanatory part intended to carry various types of information about the product on either side.
This invention also proposes a machine for the automatic application of said guarantee seal to the wrappers or products to be sealed. The machine consists of a loader for numerous stacked seals, a slider for taking the seals one at a time from the base of the loader to the application head, where there is a device for folding the stem of the seal around the product bag or wrapper, a means for fastening the folded stem and an element for printing at least the essential information on either part of the seal.
More details about the invention will become clear in the following description, which refers to the enclosed diagrams, which are indicative but not restrictive, and where: